Romaji: Wario) is a character in the Mario games who first started off as an antagonist but has since then has appeared in his own games such as the WarioWare series, Wario Land, and Wario World. He quite often makes playable appearances in spinoff Mario games, like the Mario Sports and Mario Kart series. Typically wearing purple overalls and a yellow shirt, Wario sports a big, jagged mustache, large belly, muscular arms and a wicked cackle.

Wario essentially embodies the antithesis of Mario. Whereas Mario is kind, altruistic and brave, Wario is shown to be greedy, cruel, and exploitative of others. Where Mario's motives are based in selflessness and heroism, Wario's motives are based in personal gain and jealousy. Sometimes in his treasure hunting endeavors, he will coincidentally help others for his own personal gain, such as in Wario Land 3. He's also famous for his bizarre behavior, which is much more exploited in games themed after him like the WarioWare series.

Wario is extremely vain in spite of his less-than-photogenic appearance, emblazoning his castles and Mario Kart racetracks with his image and even working his signature nose-and-mustache combo into all of his WarioWare microgames. Wario's games often have a more madcap and surreal sense of humor than Mario's, reflecting the comic nature of the man himself. Unfortunately for Wario, his money-grubbing schemes tend to end disastrously.

Other key attributes of Wario include his immense strength and surprising jumping prowess (despite his weight and lazy lifestyle) such as in various games where Wario has demonstrated his ability to smash through walls and hurl enemies many times his size. He is also depicted as being tougher and more durable than Mario as evidenced in the Wario Land games.

Wario's name is chiefly a portmanteau of the Japanese word warui, roughly meaning 'bad', and Mario's name. In addition, 'W' and 'M' resemble each other when inverted, further making Wario's name indicative of his nature as Mario's 'evil twin'.

Since his debut, Wario has gradually evolved from an antagonist to his own sort of anti-hero character.

Soon after Wario's Woods, Nintendo gave the rights to Hudson to a Bomberman game with Wario as a guest. The game is called Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!. It's unknown whether or not this game was the influence for Wario to always use bombs in games after that, but it is expected by some.

Owing to his popularity as a comic anti-hero, Wario has starred in a number of solo platforming adventures over the years, mostly in the vein of Mario's earlier outings and mostly on handheld consoles. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, while trading on Mario's familiarity, marked the first Wario platforming adventure, in which the yellow archfiend set out to capture a massive golden statue of Princess Peach that had been stolen by the Black Sugar Pirates, led by Captain Syrup.

Two further Game Boy/Color outings were to follow - Wario Land II, in which Wario's treasure was stolen by the Black Sugar Pirates, and Wario Land 3, in which Wario was abducted by a music box that he stumbled upon in a cave and was promised treasure for helping its apparent former ruler. Wario Land 4, on the Game Boy Advance, marked a departure from the previous two games in the series in that Wario was able to die, and saw Wario exploring an ancient pyramid in a quest, once again, for wealth. Wario: Master of Disguise has been his only Nintendo DS adventure thus far. Wario even appeared in a title for the Virtual Boy, Virtual Boy Wario Land.

To date Wario appeared in two home console action-style games. The first being a GameCube title named Wario World. In Wario World, a mysterious black jewel that Wario stole and added to his treasure horde came to life in the middle of the night and promptly set about transforming Wario's castle and all of his treasures into a parallel dimension populated by bizarre monsters. The second game, a Wii title called Wario Land: Shake it!, starts with the return of Captain Syrup. She starts the plot by stealing a globe from a museum and giving it as a gift to Wario. Wario then opens the large parcel in which the globe came in and reads the note that captain syrup left with it. The note reads "The real gift is inside. Enjoy!".

Wario, not understanding the true meaning of the note, then proceeds to grab a sledge hammer. Before he can complete his backswing, a hole in the top of the globe opens up and steam rushes out. Startled by all this Wario ducks down and by this time a telescope appears pointed at the globe just above his head. Out of the steaming hole appears a creature called a murfle. As soon as Wario hears the murfle speak, he immedeatly jerks out of his defensive position and hits his head on the telescope. Angered By all this, Wario then grabs the murfle and draws his fist back to punch him and the murfle stops him by telling him the Shake King has stolen from his homeland a magical sack of coins that never gets empty. Wario is roused at the thought of endless money and travels to the murfle's homeland on the globe via the giant telescope in search of the endless coin sack'

The Many Transformations of Wario

Wario has become known over the years for his many and varied transformations, as brought about mostly by certain enemies in his platforming adventures. Examples include:

Fiery Wario - Upon being set ablaze, Wario will dash back and forth uncontrollably, eventually being consumed by the fire and smoldering down to near nothing. While he smolders Wario slows down and can destroy torch blocks that he makes contact with. Remarkably, after being burnt to a crisp, he is able to reform himself an make a full recovery including his clothes.

Frozen Wario- Some enemies will try to freeze wario. If they succeed then Wario will freeze and be sent sliding across the screen in the direction of the freeze blast until he hits a wall. This ability is more of a hindrance than a benefit although wario is invincible and can slide through spike balls in certain places without damage.

Crazy Wario - Wandering around in a daze to jaunty theme music, Wario lost much control over his movements. An ability to knock out his enemies with a bizarre killer belch was removed after Wario Land II. This ability strangely resembles intoxication or some other form of imparement.

Snowman Wario - Another cold transformation that occurs when Wario gets snow dropped on him. Snowman Wario defeats enemies by walking into them and when on a slope he will roll until he hits a wall.

Fat Wario

Fat Wario - Certain enemies in the Wario Land series will throw food at wario. When Wario comes into contact with the food he ingests it and instantly gains half his weight becoming Fat Wario. His jump is severely hampered along with his speed but in return for his loss of mobility he gains the ability to defeat enemies simply by walking into them along with the ability to perform a Ground Pound, making him able to destroy strong blocks with relative ease. Wario returns to normal after getting some exercise (for example, walking a certain amount of steps or falling into water and swimming).

Tiny Wario - When Wario is hit by an enemy in Wario Land he shrinks much the same as Mario does in Mario games thus becoming Tiny Wario. This transformation robs Wario of the ability to use his signature shoulder barage attack although Wario did have the advantage of a faster running speed and the ability to fit through narrow gaps. This transformation was also seen in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, when he was transformed into hundreds of smaller versions of himself, due to riding a motorbike given to him as a present by Penny Crygor.

Vampire/Bat Wario - In Wario Land 3 Wario donned a fetching cape and gained the supernatural power to defeat enemies by walking into them - by getting a bite from a bat. He could also transform into a bat himself. Regarding this as a rather cool transformation in the Wario Land 3 manual, he was no doubt disappointed by the decision in Wario Land 4 to remove the 'vampire' part. Also seen in Dr. Mario 64.

Wario Man

Wario Man - As seen in the WarioWare series first debuting in WarioWare Twisted!. Wario Man can do literally everything that regular Wario can, all while wearing an hilarious bright pink outfit. In WarioWare: Touched! Wario Proclaims that he's "stouter than an iron borito and tougher than cardboard" Wario can turn into Wario Man by eating 'funky' garlic.

In the Mario Kart series

Excluding Super Mario Kart, Wario has appeared in every mario kart game to date. He is always in the heavy class of drivers and usually has a reletively high top speed accompanied by poor acceleration common to heavy drivers. Contrary to this though is his Wario Bike, featured in Mario Kart Wii, that actually has the highest acceleration and lowest top speed of any heavy vehicle.

In these games he appears to be very unsportsmanly and laughs if he passes another racer. In most installments he is a playable character from the beginning but in Mario Kart 7 he is an unlockable character. In Mario Kart 8, Wario is a playable character from the beginning again. In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Wario shares the special Bob-omb item with his default racing partner Waluigi.

Wario was also in Mario Kart 8 in which he was a playable character and had a new track for him. He was an heavy tipe character. The track that was made is Mount Wario.

Attacks

Wario, as every other character, has a wide assortment of attacks that he is able to perform. He has one of the best aerial games because of his very fast lateral air movement, and his aerial attacks are excellent comboing. His down tilt is one of the fastest moves in the game, able to offensively zone. If he uses the Wario Bike, he will hop on a motorcycle and drive around the stage smashing into his opponents. It is excellent recovery as it travels far horizontally and if it collides with the stage, he can easily recover. He is able to get off of it, though other people can then pick it up and break it.

Wario-Man is Wario's alter-ego and Final Smash. Wario's attacks have different properties as Wario-Man, and his special moves become more powerful as well.

Wario returns in Brawl's followup, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U, this time he is an unlockable character as opposed to being a starter character in Brawl. He retains his attacks from Brawl. He also has eight costumes as opposed to twelve, four WarioWare and four Classic.

Costumes

In Brawl, he was the only character with 12 costumes with 6 being his biker WarioWare design and 6 being his classic design. This continues into Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U with him being the only other character besides Little Mac to have 16 costumes.

Trophy descriptions

Super Smash Bros. Melee

"An old acquaintance of Mario's. His failure to seize Mario's castle has fueled Wario's desire for a palace of his own. Wario has herculean strength and can do things that even Mario can't imitate. His unexpected skills include a talent with items and the ability to assume many roles, among them a snowman, a zombie, and a bat."

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (11/92)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

"Mario's self-styled rival. He loves money and gross humor. He often sets out in search of hidden treasure. His bold moves come from his superhuman strength and are completely different from Mario's moves. Aside from adventuring, he's also the chairman of game maker WarioWare, Inc. Its franchise game is WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$."